1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to arrangements to aid people, children in particular, to fall asleep. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for optimizing the conditions established for people to help them fall asleep.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is fairly common for children to experience some difficulties going to sleep at bedtime. Infants, toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children have such difficulties from time to time; some more so than others. If a young child has sleep problems, the whole family may be affected, including at bedtime when the focus of attention falls on that child, possibly for an extended period of time, possibly through the night, and the next day when the fallout from a disrupted routine impacts the child and those around the child impacted by the occurrence. There is a need for a system and/or method to improve the circumstances of getting a child to fall to sleep.
If childhood sleep problems are not addressed they can persist into later childhood and teenage years. Lack of good quality sleep in children has been linked to a variety of developmental and behavioral problems. There may be additional aspects of the child's sleep cycle that contribute to, or form a significant part of, such problems not limited to the event of initially falling to sleep. Nevertheless, that first effort at getting the child to fall to sleep can impact the remainder of the sleep cycle. Links have been suggested between sleepiness and increased oppositional and inattentive behavior, impaired verbal fluency and creativity, a reduction in the speed and accuracy at which tasks are completed and a decrease in the ability to perform abstract problem solving. It is therefore clear that addressing childhood sleep problems, which may include ensuring that the sleep cycle begins as effectively as possible, has value for a child. Additionally, a smooth transition from activity to sleep can be of consequential benefit to the rest of the family.
As children age, the types of sleep problems they can suffer from change. Newly born babies of up to around two months are not able to distinguish night from day and typically sleep for numerous short periods. From two months to about two years of age, children start to sleep for longer periods and have to learn to adjust their sleep patterns in order to sleep during the night and be active during the day. A child learns how to sleep and does so as a function of the environment. Among other things, such as room noise or temperature, for example, if the child associates the onset of sleep with receiving attention from a particular parent, for example, it may be necessary to have that parent in attendance at sleep time. As the time frame for falling to sleep expands, the reliance on that parent's attendance becomes more necessary. It can become difficult to get the child to fall asleep under any other conditions. The child may cry until that particular condition exists. The need for the existence of that specific condition can be disruptive for all concerned, particularly as the time involved increases.
As children become more independent from about to two to five years old, they often start to stall at bedtime, refuse to go to bed or leave their bedroom. This can be because the children seek attention from a parent, parents or other caregiver, and may prioritize the need for that association over giving in to the feeling tiredness. If the caregiver does not enforce conditions that provide regularity to the sleep cycle, older children learn that they can get away with staying up later if they are disruptive to the process at bedtime. This often leads to the children not receiving the duration of sleep they require. These problems can be aggravated further by busy sleeping environments, such as a room shared with another child or sleep-incompatible behaviors such as late-night television watching. Once a child has developed inappropriate sleep habits they can be difficult for a caregiver to fix. At least one study has suggested that children ages 2-12 fall asleep in about 17-19 minutes. That may be quite a long time for the child to miss out on sleep and the caregiver to spend in an effort, directly or indirectly, to get a child to sleep.
For school age children of five years and above, the imposition of a different weekday and weekend schedule can lead to sleeping difficulties, including the ability to get up early in the morning and going to bed earlier at night in order to be able to get up early in the morning. Furthermore, any sort of stimulating activity, including television in the bedroom and rigorous physical activity just before bedtime, for example, can lead to a delay in the onset of sleep and accompanying problems with daytime sleepiness. If unaddressed these problems can have a deleterious effect on the performance of the child at school and in later life.
Fortunately, many sleep problems in children can be addressed by established behavioral means. By setting and enforcing appropriate sleep times, removing distractions, ensuring a good sleep environment and timing parental contact, the child's quality of sleep can be optimized. The difficulty arises in establishing those conditions to ensure such a good overall environment to facilitate the onset of sleep. It is believed, and is the premise of the present invention, that this optimization is most likely to occur when the child develops his or her own sleep skill. That is, the child will develop the best sleep cycle when he or she makes the effect transition from when the caregiver departs the child's presence to when sleep begins. That transition is dependent on the child's developmental stage but it can be generally characterized with respect to toddlers, preschoolers and your schoolchildren. What is needed is a system and related method to optimize that transition period. Currently, while there are skill building products, specifically periodicals and work books that help build children's skills in mathematics, reading and writing, there are no skill building products in the marketplace that help build effective sleep skills in children.